Clytemnestra Clytemnestra See More Clytemnestra Pictures > In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon , king of Mycenae or Argos . She was the daughter of Tyndareus and Leda , rulers of Sparta , and sister of Castor , Polydeuces , and Helen . When her sister Helen and wife of Agamemnon 's brother, Menelaus , was abducted by Paris and was taken to Troy , Agamemnon decided to help his brother and bring his wife back, thus starting the Trojan War . Before the army left for Troy , Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia , as he had caused the wrath of Artemis . While he was away, Clytemnestra started an affair with Aegisthus , with whom she plotted against her husband. Clytemnestra was angry with her husband, both because of her daughter's sacrifice, as well as because Agamemnon had killed her first husband and taken her by force. Upon his return from Troy , Agamemnon was welcomed by his wife.

When he went to take a bath, Clytemnestra threw a net on him and stabbed him. Agamemnon 's concubine, Cassandra , who was outside the palace, had foreseen the plot, but as she was cursed by the god Apollo , no one believed her and she reluctantly accepted her fate and was slain. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra took the rule of Mycenae for seven years, until Orestes , the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon , returned and killed his mother and her lover as revenge for his father's death. Clytemnestra Is also called Clytaemnestra. Agamemnon - Greek King of the Trojan War Agamemnon - Greek King of the Trojan War A Page for the Ancient / Classical History Glossary Agamemnon - Greek King of the Trojan War Clytemnestra hesitates before killing the sleeping Agamemnon. On the left, Aegisthus urges her on. Pierre-Narcisse Guérin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons By N.S. Gill Updated August 15, 2016.

Agamemnon, the leading king of the Greek forces in the Trojan War , became king of Mycenae by driving out his uncle, Thyestes, with the help of King Tyndareus of Sparta. Agamemnon was a son of Atreus , the husband of Clytemnestra (a daughter of Tyndareus), and the brother of Menelaus , who was the husband of Helen of Troy (Clytemnestra's sister). When Helen was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris , Agamemnon led the Greek expedition to Troy to take back his brother's wife. In order for the Greek fleet to set sail from Aulis , Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. When Agamemnon returned from Troy, he wasn't alone. He brought with him another woman as concubine, the prophetess Cassandra , who was famous for not having her prophecies believed. This was at least a third strike for Agamemnon as far as Clytemnestra was concerned. His first strike had been killing Clytemnestra's first husband, the grandson of Tantalus , in order to marry her.

continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know His second strike was killing their daughter Iphigenia , and his third strike was flagrant disregard shown for Clytemnestra by parading another woman in her home. No matter that Clytemnestra had another man. Clytemnestra and her lover (Agamemnon's cousin), killed Agamemnon. Agamemnon's son Orestes took revenge by killing Clytemnestra, his mother. The Furies (or Erinyes) took vengeance on Orestes, but in the end, Orestes was vindicated because Athena judged that killing his mother was less heinous that killing his father. Pronunciation: a-ga-mem'-non • (noun) Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, the leader of Greeks in the Trojan war - Greek Gods, Mythology of Ancient Greece Agamemnon Agamemnon Agamemnon was a Greek leader in the great Trojan war. The war made him recognisable throughout historical and mythological recordings, even to this day.

Despite his heroics and great leadership, Agamemnon was a casualty of unfortunate events in his family which were based on treachery, rape, murder and incest. He managed to run away and take refuge in Sparta with his brother Menelaus who then became a king of Sparta and helped Agamemnon to reclaim his throne in Mycenae . When Helen of Sparta was abducted, Menelaus called upon his brother who became a leader of the Greeks in Trojan war that lasted for ten years. Agamemnon himself managed to survive but was murdered upon his arrival back to his homeland, by either his wife Clytemnestra whom he married while at Sparta or her lover who happened to be Aegisthus, the son of his uncle Thyestes who fathered him with his own daughter Pelopia. Appearance in the works of art In the works of art, Agamemnon`s depiction resemble and is very similar to the representation of Zeus , the king of the gods. Agamemnon is generally depicted wearing a diadem and holding a scepter which are among conventional attributes of kings. Family quarrel In his early life, there were plenty of things going wrong.

His father Atreus murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes, after finding out his adultery with his wife Aerope. Atreus even went so far that the murdered children were on the menu of Thyestes for a while. However, Atreus hadn`t murdered all of his children, mostly because he didn`t know about Aegisthus who was a son of Thyestes and Thyestes` daughter Pelopia. It was not long, before Aegisthus took revenge on Atreus and murdered him. He then claimed the throne of Mycenae and ruled hand to hand with Thyestes. Together, they exiled Agamemnon and Menelaus from Mycenae. The brothers took refuge at the place of Tyndareus, a king of Sparta, where they married the king`s daughters Helen and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra together had four children, one son and three daughters. Eventually, Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta and with his superior army helped his brother to drove away Thyestes and reclaim his throne in Mycenae.

For a while they enjoyed a decent life, until Paris kidnapped Helen, the wife of his brother Menelaus. Trojan war This act, which was caused by the gods themselves, led to a war between Greeks and Trojans. And it happened to be king Agamemnon who led his people into battle. He had to overcome his first obstacle while still in Greece. He offended Artemis by killing one of her sacred animals and the angry goddess obstructed their departure from Boeotia. Greek soldiers were becoming more and more reluctant and, as a result of this, he had to sacrifice one of his daughters, called Iphigenia, to the angry goddess. Finally, Agamemnon made peace with Artemis, gathered his army, including two of the finest heroes Odysseus and Achilles , and set sail for Troy. Agamemnon then led his men into a battlefield, filled them with good positive morale and himself fought bravely. He killed many Trojans until he was finally wounded and forced to withdraw to his camp. It looked like they were going to win with ease, until his act to take away Briseis from Achilles, after losing Chryseis to Apollo , corrupted their progress.

Briseis was a local woman of great beauty whom Achilles took for himself, after clearing the village in the Trojan lands. It resulted for Achilles withdrawing himself from the battlefield as a revengeful act. The Greeks consequently started losing battles and morale was getting lower and lower. However, later on, as you probably already know, Achilles returned to battle when his closest friend was killed and Agamemnon finally gave up on Briseis and returned her to him. Eventually, with Achilles killing Hector and Odysseus` great disguise in the shape of a Trojan horse, the Greeks managed to capture the city of Troy and win the war. Agamemnon took Cassandra, a daughter of Priam, a former king of Troy, as his reward and set sail back to Greece. Murder of Agamemnon Meanwhile, his wife Clytemnestra was having an affair with no-one else but his foe Aegisthus. When Agamemnon came home, he was killed by either Aegisthus or Clytemnestra.

According to the accounts given by the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, where she had first thrown a net or a blanket of cloth over him to prevent resistance and then killed him with an axe. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. It is said that her motives for the crime were jealousy of his new lover Cassandra and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as well as his departure to war over the Helen of Troy. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then ruled the kingdom for some time, until Agamemnon's son Orestes, with the help of his sister Electra, avenged his father's death by murdering Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra. It is said that repeating treachery through generations resulted in a wrath of Erinyes who tracked down these sinners with their hounds and drove them to insanity.

greek-gods.org (c) Copyright 2013 - 2016, all rights reserved Myths about Agamemnon- Agamemnon and Clytemnestra Agamemnon and Clytemnestra Agamemnon and Clytemnestra There once came a day when Agamemnon's father, King Atreus, got dethroned and murdered by his brother, Aegisthus. Therefore, Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus had to take refuge with Tyndareus, the king of Sparta. AWhile in his palace, Agamemnon fell in love with wanted Clytemnestra, the daughter of Tyndareus and, in order to take her for his wife he killed her first husband and her child. He then married Clytemnestra and Menelaus married Clytemnestra�s half sister, Helen. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis and Orestes.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia Before setting off to Troy, Agamemnon tried to appease goddess Artemis to calm the wings of the Greek sails and make them arrive safely in Troy. For this reason, Agamemnon was told by the prophet Calchas to sacrifice his eldest daughter Iphigenia to Artemis. Agamemnon finally consented and Iphigenia was brought to Aulis, an ancient Greek town in Boeotia, in order to be sacrificed. In the end, however, Artemis decided to rescue Iphigenia and carried her away, placing a deer in her place. The Revenge of Clytemnestra Clytemnestra never forgave Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter and, by the time Agamemnon was fighting in the Trojan War, she cheated on her husband with Agamemnon�s cousin, Aegisthus. And when Agamemnon returned from Troy, bringing his mistress Cassandra with him, Clytemnestra became even more angry and she slay both Agamemnon and Cassandra with an axe.

Aegisthus was Clytemnestra�s accomplice, but got later on killed in revenge by Clytemnestra's son, Orestes. Search Agamemnon | Greek mythology | Britannica.com Greek mythology Orestes Agamemnon, in Greek legend , king of Mycenae or Argos . He was the son (or grandson) of Atreus , king of Mycenae, and his wife Aërope and was the brother of Menelaus . After Atreus was murdered by his nephew Aegisthus (son of Thyestes), Agamemnon and Menelaus took refuge with Tyndareus, king of Sparta , whose daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen , they respectively married. By Clytemnestra, Agamemnon had a son, Orestes , and three daughters, Iphigeneia (Iphianassa), Electra (Laodice), and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus, and Agamemnon recovered his father’s kingdom.

Electra and Orestes killing Aegisthus in the presence of their mother, Clytemnestra; detail of a … The Mansell Collection/Art Resource, New York When Paris (Alexandros), son of King Priam of Troy , carried off Helen, Agamemnon called on the princes of the country to unite in a war of revenge against the Trojans . He himself furnished 100 ships and was chosen commander in chief of the combined forces. The fleet assembled at the port of Aulis in Boeotia but was prevented from sailing by calms or contrary winds that were sent by the goddess Artemis because Agamemnon had in some way offended her. To appease the wrath of Artemis, Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigeneia. After the capture of Troy , Cassandra , Priam’s daughter, fell to Agamemnon’s lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. On his return he landed in Argolis , where Aegisthus , who in the interval had seduced Agamemnon’s wife, treacherously carried out the murders of Agamemnon, his comrades, and Cassandra.

In Agamemnon, by the Greek poet and dramatist Aeschylus , however, Clytemnestra was made to do the killing. The murder was avenged by Orestes, who returned to slay both his mother and her paramour . On his long journey home, Odysseus visits the Land of the Departed Spirits, where he encounters the … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Agamemnon | Greek Mythology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Mythology Early Life Atreus, Agamemnon's father, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to him after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus successfully murdered Atreus and restored his father to the throne. Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with Thyestes. During this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta.

There they respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Klytemnestra and Helen. Agamemnon and Klytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia , Elektra and Khrysothemis . Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. Agamemnon's family history had been marred by rape, murder, incest and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus , by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods. Trojan War Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy.

Preparing to depart from Aulis, which was a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis . There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath: in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis' equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. Classical dramatisations differ on how willing either father or daughter were to this fate, some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Akhilles , but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology.

Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, claim that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter, but that Artemis accepted a deer in her place, and whisked her away to Taurus in Crimea. Hesoid said she became the goddess Hecate . Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and 15 other Trojan soldiers. Agamemnon's teamster, Halaesus, later fought with Aeneas of Italy. The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. Agamemnon took an attractive slave, Briseis, one of the spoils of war, from Akhilles. Akhilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war. Although not the equal of Akhilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of kingly authority. As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle.

He took the field himself, and performed many heroic deeds until he was wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. Return to Greece After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Kassandra either landed in Argolis, or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Klytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, had taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon came home he was slain by either Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story) or Klytemnestra. According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, a blanket of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance. Klytemnestra also killed Kassandra.

Her jealousy of Kassandra, and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agamemnon's having gone to war over Helen of Troy, are said to have been the motives for her crime. Aegisthus and Klytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Agamemnon's father Atreus having fed Thyestes his own children (Thyestes then crying out "So perish all the race of Pleisthenes!", thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenged his father's murder, with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra, by murdering Aegisthus and Klytemnestra (his own mother), thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes , winged goddesses who tracked down egregiously impious wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drove them to insanity.

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra by Mia Gibson Clytemnestra (also spelled "Clytaemnestra") is the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus and the half sister of Helen . Clytemnestra and Helen are half sisters because Zeus appeared to Leda in the form of a swan and raped her. On the same night, Tyndareus also had sex with Leda and Leda became pregnant. Leda gave birth to four children or in some versions, laid four eggs. Clytemnestra and Castor was Tyndareus' children therefore they are mortal. Helen and Polydeuces was Zeus' therefor they are immortal. Clytemnestra's importance in Greek mythology comes from her marriage to Agamemnon , Menelaus ' brother. There are two versions of Clytemnestra's involvement in the death of Agamemnon. Homer describes Agamemnon's departure for the Trojan War, to help to avenge his brother Menelaus. While Agamemnon is away, Aegisthus plotted to seduce Clytemnestra and murder Agamemnon once he returned from the Trojan War.

As the years passed, and there was no word that the war was anywhere near an end, Clytemnestra weakened and welcomed the sensuous advances of Aegisthus . When the war does finally end, Agamemnon arrives home to be killed by men hired by Aegisthus. Orestes , Agamemnon's and Clytemnestra's son, kills Aegisthus to avenge his father's death. Clytemnestra disappears or is killed but Homer does not go into to much detail about her. In this version, Clytemnestra is weak and insignificant compared to the male players. Aeschylus series of plays called Orestia provide the most popular version of this myth. In the first play, Agamemnon, Aeschylus describes Clytemnestra as a strong woman and not the weakling she appeared to be in Homer's version. When Agamemnon leaves for the Trojan War, Clytemnestra starts her torrid affair with Aegisthus. Together, they plot to kill Agamemnon as soon as he returns from the war.

When the signal is given that the war is over, Clytmnestra prepares for the return of Agamemnon. She is already mad at Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia , and then she finds out that Agamemnon is bringing home another wife, Cassandra . As soon as Agamemnon's chariot pulls up in front of the palace, Clytemnestra goes out to welcome Agamemnon. She lays a purple cloth on the ground for him to walk over, at first Agamemnon refuses to walk over the cloth but soon gives in to Clytmnestra's request. Cassandra, given the sight of prophecy by Apollo but with the curse that no one would believe her because she failed to keep her promise to have sex with him, remained outside because she could see the doom surrounding the palace. When Cassandra finally enters the palace, a cry is heard and a blood drenched Clytemnestra is shown standing over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Aegisthus marries Clytemnestra to become King but is no more than a puppet to Clytemnestra. This ends the play Agamemnon.

Article details: Agamemnon Agamemnon See More Agamemnon Pictures > In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae or Argos (different names of the same region), son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope . His brother was Menelaus , who was married to Helen , the main characters that participated in the events leading to the Trojan War . He was married to Clytemnestra , and had four children; Iphigenia , Orestes , Chrysothemis and Electra , also known as Laodike. When Agamemnon and Menelaus were still young, they were forced to flee Mycenae, as their cousin Aegisthus forcibly took possession of the throne, an act that culminated after a long-time clash between their fathers. Agamemnon and Menelaus found refuge in Sparta , in the court of King Tyndareus , and they later married Tyndareus ’ daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen respectively. After Tyndareus ’ death, Menelaus became king, while Agamemnon managed to retake the throne of Mycenae, exiling Aegisthus and his father.

Later, the prince of Troy , Paris , assisted by Aphrodite , abducted Helen , Menelaus ’ wife, and went back to Troy . Agamemnon agreed to help his brother to take her back and declared war on Troy . However, as the ships were ready to set sail, Agamemnon ’s army infuriated the goddess Artemis , who sent a number of misfortunes against them. The prophet Calchas realised that Artemis ’ fury would only be appeased by the sacrifice of Agamemnon ’s daughter Iphigenia . This part of the myth has different versions, as to whether Iphigenia accepted her fate or she was tricked thinking she would be married to Achilles . In the end, she was sacrificed; however, there are alternatives to this part as well. Some sources say that she was sacrificed, while in others, Artemis replaced her with a deer and took her to the region of Tauris in the Crimean Peninsula. Agamemnon never found out. After the end of the war, Agamemnon returned home, where Clytemnestra had started an affair with Aegisthus .

The two of them plotted against Agamemnon and killed him, thus Aegisthus becoming the ruler of Mycenae again. Orestes , Agamemnon ’s son, later avenged his father’s death by killing the two lovers; however, this caused the wrath of the Erinyes , because he committed matricide. Agamemnon | Myths of the World Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Myths of the World Wiki Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. Template:Cleanup This article is about a character in Greek mythology. For other uses, see Agamemnon (disambiguation) .

In Greek mythology , Agamemnon ( Ancient Greek : Template:Polytonic ; modern Greek : Αγαμέμνονας, "leader of the assembly") was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope ; the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra ; mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos , thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen , the wife of Menelaus, was abducted by Paris of Troy , Agamemnon was the commander of the Achaeans in the ensuing Trojan War . Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy he was murdered (according to the fullest version of the oldest surviving account, Odyssey Book 11, l.409f.) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra, who herself slew Cassandra , Agamemnon's unfortunate concubine, as she clung to him.

In old versions of the story: "The scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers too". [1] In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they do it together, in his own home. Hittite sources mention Template:Hittite , ruler of Template:Hittite (land of Achaeans) in the fourteenth century BC. [2] [3] This is a possible prototype of the Agamemnon of mythology. Early life Edit Agamemnon's life was shadowed under prophecy. Atreus, Agamemnon's father, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes , excepting Aegisthus , and fed them to Thyestes, who vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with Thyestes. During this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus , took refuge with Tyndareus , King of Sparta .

There they respectively married Tyndareus's daughters Clytemnestra and Helen . Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes , and three daughters, Iphigenia , Electra and Chrysothemis . Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. Agamemnon's family history had been marred by rape , murder , incest , and treachery , consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by their ancestor, Tantalus , and then of a curse placed upon Pelops , son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus , until atoned by Orestes in a joint divine-human court of justice. The Trojan War Main article: Trojan War Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy.

Preparing to depart from Aulis , which was a port in Boeotia , Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis . There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath: in Aeschylus ' play Agamemnon , Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles ' Electra , Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis's equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia . Classical dramatisations differ on how willing either father or daughter were to this fate, some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles , but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology.

Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, claim that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter, but that Artemis accepted a deer in her place, and whisked her away to Taurus in Crimea . Hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate . Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers. [4] Agamemnon's teamster , Halaesus , later fought with Aeneas in Italy . The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. Agamemnon took an attractive slave, one of the spoils of war, Briseis from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a dignified representative of kingly authority. As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle.

He took the field himself, and performed many heroic deeds until he was wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness. An over-exalted opinion of his position led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra , doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam , fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. Return to Greece File:Aegisthus.jpg After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra either landed in Argolis , or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Clytemnestra , Agamemnon's wife, had taken Aegisthus , son of Thyestes , as a lover. When Agamemnon came home he was slain by either Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story) or Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, a blanket of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra.

Her jealousy of Cassandra, and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agamemnon's having gone to war over Helen are said to have been the motives for her crime. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Agamemnon's father Atreus having fed Thyestes his own children (Thyestes then crying out "So perish all the race of Pleisthenes!" (Aeschylus, Aga., ln. 1602), thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenged his father's murder, with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra , by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra (his own mother), thereby enciting the wrath of the Erinyes (English: the Furies), winged goddesses who tracked down egregiously impious wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drove them to insanity.

Genealogy Edit Athenaeus tells a story of how Agamemnon mourned the loss of his friend Argynnus, when he drowned in the Cephisus river. He buried him, honored with a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis. (The Deipnosophists of Athenaeus of Naucratis, Book XIII Concerning Women, p. 3) This episode is also found in Clement of Alexandria (Protrepticus II.38.2), in Stephen of Byzantium (Kopai and Argunnos), and in Propertius , III with minor variations. [5] The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies , ancient and modern, the most famous being the Oresteia of Aeschylus . In the legends of the Peloponnesus , Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamemnon . His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae .

Another account makes him the son of Pleisthenes (the son or father of Atreus ), who is said to have been Aerope's first husband. In works of art there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus , king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem , conventional attributes of kings. Agamemnon's mare was named Aetha. She was also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus. [6] [7] In fiction Agamemnon is the subject of two novels by George Shipway; "Warrior in Bronze" (1977), about Agamemnon's rise to the throne of Mycenae, and its sequel, "The King in Splendour" (1979), about Agamemnon and the Trojan War. Portrayals in film Edit Recent interpretations depict Agamemnon in a completely different light. In the 2003 TV miniseries Helen of Troy , Agamemnon, played by actor Rufus Sewell , kills Paris and rapes Helen before being stabbed by Clytemnestra in his bath.

In Wolfgang Petersen 's film Troy (2004), in a severe contrast to the hero from mythology, Agamemnon is now the primary villain of the story, portrayed as a cruel and power-hungry warlord who seeks to control the Aegean Sea , for which he has to conquer Troy. He cares nothing for Menelaus's marriage and sees it as a mere excuse to go to war with Troy. In the end, during the Sack of Troy , he attacks Briseis, whose romance with Achilles nearly cost him the Trojan War, and tells her she will be his personal slave. In response, she stabs and kills him with a hidden stiletto. He was portrayed by Scottish actor Brian Cox . In Terry Gilliam 's film Time Bandits , Agamemnon is played by Sean Connery . Historically somewhat incorrect, Agamemnon is shown as slaying the minotaur (who, according to legend, was killed by Theseus ). Personality Edit Template:Refimprovesect Agamemnon possesses a strong temper and a prideful streak similar to Achilles. He is not as strong as Achilles, nor is he an exceptional warrior.

Agamemnon clearly has a stubborn streak that one can argue makes him extremely arrogant . Although he takes few risks in battle, Agamemnon still accomplishes some progress for the Greeks. As a king Agamemnon, it can perhaps be argued, is loyal, as he insists upon leading a battle for his brother, Menelaus’ stolen bride; though this may well be only a pretext for a raid for booty. Unlike Achilles, Agamemnon’s deepest concern is for himself, and therefore he sees others, depending on how they relate to him. See also

Question: In Greek mythology who was the sister of Helen and wife of Agamemnon?
Answer: CLYTEMNESTRA